The best laid plans.........

Saturday 12th October

I guess it was just too good to be true....something had to go wrong and last night it certainly did.  After a pretty successful and relaxing day we were busy congratulating ourselves on how clever we had been finding such great accommodation and feeling very smug.  We cooked a really nutritious meal, enjoyed it in the comfort of our apartment (a glass of wine would have been nice but plenty of time for that post marathon) and were ready to catch up on some sleep deficit when our upstairs neighbour arrived home.  The clumping around on a wooden floor in outdoor shoes was pretty annoying but we comforted ourselves with the thought that it couldn't last too long but then the TV came on...at full blast, and on it stayed.  We tried ear plugs, we tried ear phones with our own music, we tried knocking on the door, we tried shouting at the ceiling, we even, in desperation, tried calling our host.  Finally at 2.34am the TV went off and blissful silence descended but we were so wound up sleep did not come easily.

At 7am we gave up and got up.  We had planned on spending the day relaxing in the apartment but we badly needed some sleep so we headed for the hills in search of a quiet park where we could try to sleep. It proved surprisingly hard to find such a place and we did a lot of driving up and down various canyons (admittedly it was very scenic) until we finally found Borrego Canyon Overlook Park.

What a perfect little oasis of peace and tranquility.  A small but attractive park with great views and best of all, almost completely deserted.  We spent several hours in the sun alternately snoozing, reading and eating and were only disturbed by a few dog walkers and a couple of kids passing through.

Eventually we headed back to base only to find that the loud music was already blaring through the ceiling. It became increasingly loud and increasingly annoying to the point where my stress levels reached explosion point.........Martin again tried knocking on the door and this time got a response.  Ten minutes later the music stopped and currently there is just the normal late evening traffic and general noise.


Is the damage done?  With only about 6 hours sleep in the last 3 nights and a 2.45 am alarm call in the morning, I feel like my marathon is over before I've even laced my shoes.